The Spy Who Dumped Me
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 3, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
22
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Total FilmEmma DibdinAug 14, 2018
An innovative genre blend that overcomes its bagginess thanks to sharp character comedy and a wildly appealing central dynamic. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiAug 1, 2018
Don’t be fooled by its awful title. The Spy Who Dumped Me is the rare secret-agent spoof that doesn’t double-O-suck. Read full review
70
Film ThreatBrian ThompsonAug 3, 2018
The women both in front of and behind the camera work wonders in subverting genre expectations, but not in the hokey, pandering way that female-led blockbusters so often settle for. Read full review
70
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsAug 2, 2018
McKinnon is all excess, all the time, and The Spy Who Dumped Me—a solid comedy, overall—gives us another chance to bask in that. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 2, 2018
It’s tough to sustain a story line this thin for two hours, and the movie runs down at the two-thirds mark. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 2, 2018
To say it’s all over the place, a frenzied collection of hits and misses, is to both capture its shortcomings and deliver a fairly cogent plot summary. But as directed by Susanna Fogel (“Life Partners”) from a script she wrote with David Iserson, the movie also has a playfully vicious screwball energy that consistently locates the violence in every joke, the humor in every kill. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 1, 2018
Ms. McKinnon is too inventive to make the character a standard, zany rom-com sidekick. There is no real precedent for her highly disciplined comic anarchy, but Ms. McKinnon reminds me a little of Peter Sellers in her command of voice, face and body and her ability to turn every scene into a popcorn popper of verbal and physical surprise. Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 30, 2018
Though the story goes a country too far and gets lost in its dénouement, the movie is, for the most part, a playful and giddy delight. Read full review
67
UproxxMike RyanAug 2, 2018
The Spy Who Dumped Me does an effective job of putting these two outsiders into the world of a violent action movie, but then the plot of the action movie has some truly head-scratching scenes. But, whatever. This is an August movie and Kunis and McKinnon are funny and that’s what you’re paying to see. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeAug 1, 2018
Much of what’s around them is rote and uneven, but Kunis and McKinnon are a comedic duo worth hanging on to. Read full review
67
ConsequenceCaroline SiedeAug 1, 2018
Unfortunately, The Spy Who Dumped Me struggles to tell a story as compelling as its two leads. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJul 26, 2018
One of those late-summer releases that’s just good enough to make you wish it were better, The Spy Who Dumped Me aims to please every step of the way, but it never earns the nearly two-hour running time. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Aug 1, 2018
All of the plot developments, including the third act twist, are predictable for aficionados of the genre, but the many successful standalone comedy and action sequences, as well as the natural chemistry between Kunis and McKinnon, keep us going. Read full review
65
Film Journal InternationalStephen Whitty Jul 31, 2018
It’s a deliriously silly, often preposterous movie...but director Susanna Fogel keeps things moving too quickly to leave much time for complaints. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 7, 2018
McKinnon’s apparent improvisations and inventions create a second, better movie in the margins. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckAug 1, 2018
The main problem with The Spy Who Dumped Me is its strange dissonance of tone. There’s nothing wrong with trying to be a hard-knuckle action film and a goofy comedy all at once. But here, that effort results in moments of occasionally stunning violence that simply don’t mesh with the light-hearted vibe the filmmakers seek elsewhere. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJul 31, 2018
Thanks to McKinnon, “Spy” is a fun summer picture that is truly, weirdly special. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 26, 2018
Director Susanna Fogel handles the action set pieces with gusto but fails to make the chick-chat bonding moments seem like anything more than padding. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 23, 2018
It’s pretty much impossible for Kate McKinnon to dip below a basic level of funny, and her presence keeps the fizz in this spy spoof action-comedy from director and co-writer Susanna Fogel. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsAug 20, 2018
It’s a promising idea that starts well, and although it starts to flounder by the end, Kunis and McKinnon do sterling work making sure it never completely runs out of energy. Read full review
60
TheWrapRobert AbeleJul 26, 2018
Not every eccentric tweak of hers lands, but it’s a wonderful feeling knowing McKinnon sees potential for humor every time the camera’s on her, even for a reaction shot shoved into an action sequence. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 26, 2018
The Spy Who Dumped Me is no debacle, but it’s an over-the-top and weirdly combustible entertainment, a movie that can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be a light comedy caper or a top-heavy exercise in B-movie mega-violence. Read full review
58
UproxxVince ManciniAug 2, 2018
The Spy Who Dumped Me‘s action is just so big and loud that it obliterates any quiet character moments or clever wordplay. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 6, 2018
The biggest crime committed by The Spy Who Dumped Me isn’t its dearth of humor or reliance on an unimaginative espionage plot but the way it wastes the talents of its leads, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 3, 2018
A well-meaning handspring of a movie that doesn’t necessarily land on its feet. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 2, 2018
The movie that can contain McKinnon, or the movie where she’s willing to be contained, has yet to be made. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 2, 2018
The difficulty is that Fogel hasn’t got enough plot here to keep things going at this smart pace. Even by the standards of a spy comedy, The Spy Who Dumped Me’s wafer-thin storyline makes precious little sense. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 2, 2018
Director and co-writer Susanna Fogel has trouble achieving a tonal balance between the comedy and the action, which only grows increasingly glaring over the course of the film’s overlong running time. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 1, 2018
It’s essentially “Romy and Michelle’s Mission Impossible” or “Lucy and Ethel Live and Let Die,” and it’s an easy, awfully disposable two hours that scatters some off-kilter belly laughs among a lot of labored gags and efficiently-shot action movie setpieces. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 1, 2018
McKinnon has so much energy and creativity she nearly jumps out of the frame. It’s an uneven performance with mixed results — but we’re left hoping she’ll be matched up with a better film role sometime soon, one that makes full use of her unique talents. Read full review
50
Washington PostSonia RaoAug 1, 2018
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Laugh a little bit, but prepare to be overwhelmed a lot. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 1, 2018
A bawdy, bloody but only sporadically funny spy spoof and buddy comedy. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 26, 2018
McKinnon dives head-first into every imbecilic scene, and Kunis stoically pretends to believe her BFF is sentient. But the movie around them is a wreck, and no amount of cloak-and-dagger will keep that secret for long. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 26, 2018
The new comedy, The Spy Who Dumped Me, is a mirthless, dead-on-arrival dud. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyAug 7, 2018
Kate McKinnon deserves better. Until then, she’ll continue to be Hollywood’s most reliable comedy savior, a one-woman circus act on a tightrope, juggling and balancing on one foot, all while holding up lousy studio comedies with her bare hands. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 1, 2018
Kunis and McKinnon don’t exactly set the screen on fire with their chemistry, and there are only the most perfunctory shadings to their characters. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 1, 2018
Light-hearted is the sweet spot for this would-be romp, yet the filmmakers keep trapping its stars in stunts that don’t play to their strengths and the dead weight that McKinnon has to lift in this lumbering spy farce would sink a lesser talent. Read full review
40
SlateInkoo KangJul 31, 2018
Lines that should be funny are sacrificed to the breathless exigencies of the plot. The movie starts to feel like a slow suffocation. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 28, 2018
Perhaps the problem isn’t one of too little ambition, but of too much. The Spy Who Dumped Me is, after all, trying earnestly to be about half a dozen different things: a buddy comedy, a spy drama, a raunch fest, a thrilling action film. It’s just that it doesn't have the focus to do any of those things particularly well. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 2, 2018
A leaden, violent and tone-deaf script and two surprisingly unfunny stars — one trying WAY too hard and the other not trying at all — bury The Spy Who Dumped Me. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAug 1, 2018
What’s lost in comedy is not matched by a gain in emotional engagement. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 2, 2018
It is never remotely serious, and yet for the most part it isn’t funny, either. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJul 31, 2018
There's an appealingly shaggy buddy comedy hidden somewhere inside of The Spy Who Dumped Me, but good luck finding it amid all the desperate poop jokes, lifeless action sequences, and lazy plot mechanics. Read full review
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